Walk with G-d -Serve G-d with gladness and a good heart
Chapter 14 Parshat 50 KiTavo / when you enter– Deu 26:1-29:8
..you shall safeguard My decrees and My judgements and not commit any of these abominations. Leviticus 18:26
Ki Tavo –when you enter – starts off with instructions for the Bikurim feast– First Fruits Festival. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (*1) discusses it as follows:
“What was original was not the celebration of first fruits. Many cultures have such ceremonies. What was unique about the ritual in our parsha, and the biblical world-view from which it derives, is that our ancestors saw God in history rather than nature. Normally what people would celebrate by bringing first-fruits would be nature itself: the seasons, the soil, the rain, the fertility of the ground and what Dylan Thomas called “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” The biblical first-fruits ceremony is quite different. It is not about nature but about the shape of history, the birth of Israel as a nation, and the redemptive power of God who liberated our ancestors from slavery.”
“This is what was new about this worldview: [1] Jews were, as Yerushalmi (see below) points out, the first to see God in history.
“[2] They were the first to see history itself as an extended narrative with an overarching theme. That vision was sustained for the whole of the biblical era, as the events of a thousand years were interpreted by the prophets and recorded by the biblical historians.
“[3] The theme of biblical history is redemption. It begins with suffering, has an extended middle section about the interactive drama between God and the people, and ends with homecoming and blessing.
“[4] The narrative is to be internalized: this is the transition from history to memory, and this is what the first-fruits declaration was about. Those who stood in the Temple saying those words were declaring: this is my story. In bringing these fruits from this land, I and my family are part of it.
“[5] Most importantly: the story was the basis of identity. Indeed, that is the difference between history and memory. History is an answer to the question, “What happened?” Memory is an answer to the question, “Who am I?” In Alzheimer’s Disease, when you lose your memory, you lose your identity. The same is true of a nation as a whole. When we tell the story of our people’s past, we renew our identity. We have a context in which we can understand who we are in the present and what we must do to hand on our identity to the future. [Yosef Hayyim Yerushalmi, Zakhor: Jewish History and Memory, University of Washington Press, 1982. The historian David Andress has just published a book, Cultural Dementia, subtitled How the West Has Lost its History and Risks Losing Everything Else (London, Head of Zeus, 2018), applying a similar insight to the contemporary West. ]”(*2)
The question I would like to ask you, the reader, is: Do you see G-d and His relationship with and actions with mankind and Israel as part of your history? That is, the history of your faith?
“The commandment [to bring the First fruits] was not simply a thanksgiving for G-d’s gift of the Land, but primarily for having settled in it as a permanent home. It was only then that they could rejoice in it with an easy mind” [34.325]
“It is explained in Or Hatorah (Chassidic explanation) that the fruit of a tree is akin to the soul as it is enclothed in the body, and that offering up the first fruit is a act whose significance is the binding of the incarnate soul with its source in G-d. It is written in Hosea, ‘I saw your fathers as the first fruit of the fig tree.’ [Hosea 9:10]” [34.326]
COMMANDMENTS
- Deu 27:16, 20, 21-23 These commandments recall those in Leviticus 18:1-30 regarding sexual conduct.
- Deu 27:18 Do not cause a blind person to go astray on the road.
3. Deu 27:19 Do not pervert judgment of a proselyte, orphan or widow.
4. Deu 27:24 Acccursed is one who strikes his fellow stealthily.
5. Deu 27:25 Do not accept bribes to kill an innocent man.
Comments regarding the above commandments
[1] Sadly today sexual perversion and the public discussions of the sinful sexual antics of people is so much part of life. No wonder the youth of today that are schooled in the liberal worldly schools and universities think that anything goes. If children are not taught the Biblical foundation at home as Torah instructs us to do (see Deu 6:7) they will go astray. They will not develop discernment regarding what’s right and wrong.
It is shocking that even Pope Frances recently indirectly condoned a homosexual lifestyle by suggesting a civil marriage contract is acceptable. For a state to also legalizing the adoption of children by same sex couples surely goes against G-d’s creation and will of what a marriage and family is supposed to be. I cannot help being shocked and saddened when the so called Queer parades in Israel is lauded and promoted, and prominent publicity is given to the thousands of people that especially travel to Israel to take part in this public display of impiety and wickedness. Surely then G-d cries for the so called Holy Land. Is it not because we idolize democracy and free speech without moral and ethical boundaries?
[2] This commandment reminds me of the unfortunate way some children think it is funny and entertaining to tease or annoy and provoke or bully someone that is disabled, studious, old or just different. It’s the duty of parents and teachers to put a stop to that kind of behavior as soon as it raises its ugly head.
Of course what is implicit in this commandment is to be helpful and kind to such a disabled person. One could also propose a metaphysical application by stating that it is wrong to trick, fool or not inform a person of the true facts of something. (Does this not in part applies to the ‘Fake media’?)
What we learn from the narrative.
Deu 26:12ff Here we read regarding Tithing. There were basically three types of “money or goods levied for the maintenance of religious institution. The following types of tithes are mentioned in the Bible: the ‘first tithe’ given to the [Cohen and] Levites after the heave offering, the second tithe which was one tenth of the first tithe given [by the Levites to the Cohen] the ‘poor tithe’ which was given to the poor in the third and the sixth year, and the ‘animal tithe’ which was levied three times a year.” [38.182] The first two years you take your tithe up to Jerusalem to enjoy there as the Scripture says on ‘whatever your soul shall desire’
It is important to note in your declaration given to G-d when you give your tithes, you declare “I did not give it to the needs of the dead” [Deu 26:14] This is specifically mentioned here because in those ancient days it was a pagan custom to do sacrifices to the dead and bury the dead with gifts. Today this is still a custom in certain cultures, but distinctly forbidden in the Bible.
In Deu 26:18 We read the purpose of Israel. Moses tells them they are distinguished, treasured people. When they observe and perform the commandments with all their hearts and souls, they will be a supreme nation, a nation of renown and other nations will praise them for their holy splendor. [But not to forget “Not because your are more numerous that all the peoples did HASHEM [יהוה [desire you and choose you, for you are the fewest of all the peoples. Rather, because of HASHEM’s love for you and because He observes the oath that He swore to your forefathers” Deu 7:7]
In Deu 28ff Moses mentions all the blessings promised to Israel if they perform the commandments with all their heart and soul; they shall be blessed in the city and in the field; in their produce, walk and offspring; even their enemies will flee before them. As we say at the Feast of Trumpets, to be the head and not the tail.
The strong warning uttered by Moses is: “Hashem will send in your midst attrition, confusion, and worry, in your every undertaking that you will do, until you are destroyed, and until you quickly perish, because of the evil of your deeds, for you having forsaken Me.” [Deu 28:20] Then verse 37 seems to describe the situation today with Anti-Semitism that is again increasing : “You will be a source of astonishment, a parable, and a conversation piece, among all the peoples where Hashem will lead you”
I have often wondered if verse 23 is not a prophecy concerning the Holocaust, describing the ovens that burnt thousands upon thousands of Jews to ashes: ”Your heavens over your head will be copper and the land beneath you will be iron”
“The central theme of this week’s parsha is thus clearly seen as the renewal of covenant vows – a remembrance…… And we, His treasured possession, are called upon to realize that to us the Holy One is much more than God. He is Ish [husband]. His ‘commandments’ are not a burden, an obligation — they are the garments He has given us to wear that mark us as His…They are not “law”; they are the natural expression of bridal passion” (*3)
The warning in verse 47: “because you did not serve יהוה your God, amid gladness and goodness of heart, when everything was abundant” should serve as a warning for us even today.
What we learn from the hebrew
‘You shall observe the commandments and decrees that G-d commanded you’ appears in some form or another in this parashat eighteen times. The gamatria of the Hebrew word for ‘life’, חי (chai) is 18!
FOOTNOTES
*1 Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 until 2013. Author of more than 26 books he is described as ‘a moral voice for out times’; ‘a light unto this nation’ (UK) – and the whole world’; ‘Britain’s most authentically prophetic voice’.
*2 Jonathan Sacks. The Story We Tell 2 Ki Tavo, Covenant and Conversation, 5778
*3 Bill Bullock. Rabbisson@cableone.net.